Editorial FULL EMPLOYMENT
relationships of work and mental health constitute a wide which has been curiously neglected by most of the social scientists. Only recently, and only in small parties, have they begun to explore. The choice of the subject for the Annual Conference of the National Association was therefore to be welcomed, and was certainly justified in the result. A great deal of fierce discussion occurred, and even if some of the most heated was some way off the main line of this argument, it was none the less most stimulating. The
province
could have been expected, that the majority concerned with providing work for their in or out of hospital, than with the value of work to health. No doubt the former was bound to be the main preoccupation of staffs centred on hospitals whose main work necessarily and rightly is treatment and rehabilitation; but one might have hoped for rather more comment on prevention and on health from representatives of local authorities and social services. This omission was the more noticeable in that Professor Hargreaves' excellent opening paper had dealt very fully with "The Psychological Significance of Work" and had certainly showed very clearly the psychological satisfactions to be obtained and the dangers to health if they were inaccessible. These passages of his paper seem so important that we have reprinted them here. But no one should fail also to read the complete version in the Conference proceedings which are being But it
of the
was
speakers patients, either
clear,
as
were more
published separately. What is work? Unfortunately the same word may mean to one, the opportunity of expressing his personality to the full, with the highest enjoyment, but to another a life of drudgery for which "the curse of Adam" is no bad phrase. Small wonder there are misconceptions if we fail to consider which we mean of these two?' or which of a wide range between them. When we speak of an individual's right to full employment do we mean full mental employment, or simply 44 hours' drudgery in the week with some extra thrown in (at higher pay) at the weekend because he has "nothing better to do then"? Do we consider at all in selecting people what their own psychological needs are, and whether there is any chance of the job providing them? Physical aptitudes we consider, yes: intelligence tests, fairly often : aptitudes, now and again. But the satisfactions needed seem too often completely 42
ignored.
We agree of course with Mr. Tennant that if the right jobs found for men and women with a mental handicap they can hold them to the satisfaction of their employers and to their own betterment in every way; a great deal of time, energy and money has been spent on rehabilitation and replacement in this way. But ls as much spent on the principle that if more men and women were allowed (and encouraged) to find the right job for themselves, they Would have fewer mental handicaps? are
The subject is already complicated by economic stresses, by Past habits of loyalty?-and antagonisms?and by seasonal fluctuations in society's need, and the task is difficult enough. But the social scientists can respond to the challenge-?and for this, Professor ^argreaves' paper will be a provoking introduction. Dr. Jaques' 0riginal ideas on the measurement of responsibility, reprinted as ?ur second article, may stimulate them to deeper reflection : and they may discover more work and more allies than they expect in the ranks of industry. Here Dr. Laing's account, also published, is most instructive in itself as well as in its description of the method to be employed, a patient, careful pedestrian progress, testing each
step
before there is any
weight
on
it.
This view will be reinforced by the remarks of Dr. J. J. (and again the Conference proceedings should be read full) that "before we consider the mentally ill who enter industry, 11 is only fair to consider the problem of those already employed", ^is account showed clearly the thought that is being given by industrial leaders on this subject. He ended : "we are just realising that the time has come for taking the same trouble over the planning of the people" (as over the planning of materials, building, transport and machinery.) Is industry being helped by psychiatry to do so?
O'Dwyer
thinking
Internationally
An excellent number of "World Health"?the World Health Organisation's Journal?has just been published (May-June, 1959.
Vol. XII,
No. 3) and is devoted to mental health. There are acc?unts of progress throughout Europe and Africa, and the illustrates range from a neo-Boschian "labyrinth of a sick mind" (which make any doctor planning a case-conference think twice), to mental hospital in the Philippines (which would be so much more effective if faces had not had to be "masked"). It is
a
publication
all readers should
see
for themselves. 43
relationships of work and mental health constitute a wide which has been curiously neglected by most of the social scientists. Only recently, and only in small parties, have they begun to explore. The choice of the subject for the Annual Conference of the National Association was therefore to be welcomed, and was certainly justified in the result. A great deal of fierce discussion occurred, and even if some of the most heated was some way off the main line of this argument, it was none the less most stimulating. The
province
could have been expected, that the majority concerned with providing work for their in or out of hospital, than with the value of work to health. No doubt the former was bound to be the main preoccupation of staffs centred on hospitals whose main work necessarily and rightly is treatment and rehabilitation; but one might have hoped for rather more comment on prevention and on health from representatives of local authorities and social services. This omission was the more noticeable in that Professor Hargreaves' excellent opening paper had dealt very fully with "The Psychological Significance of Work" and had certainly showed very clearly the psychological satisfactions to be obtained and the dangers to health if they were inaccessible. These passages of his paper seem so important that we have reprinted them here. But no one should fail also to read the complete version in the Conference proceedings which are being But it
of the
was
speakers patients, either
clear,
as
were more
published separately. What is work? Unfortunately the same word may mean to one, the opportunity of expressing his personality to the full, with the highest enjoyment, but to another a life of drudgery for which "the curse of Adam" is no bad phrase. Small wonder there are misconceptions if we fail to consider which we mean of these two?' or which of a wide range between them. When we speak of an individual's right to full employment do we mean full mental employment, or simply 44 hours' drudgery in the week with some extra thrown in (at higher pay) at the weekend because he has "nothing better to do then"? Do we consider at all in selecting people what their own psychological needs are, and whether there is any chance of the job providing them? Physical aptitudes we consider, yes: intelligence tests, fairly often : aptitudes, now and again. But the satisfactions needed seem too often completely 42
ignored.
We agree of course with Mr. Tennant that if the right jobs found for men and women with a mental handicap they can hold them to the satisfaction of their employers and to their own betterment in every way; a great deal of time, energy and money has been spent on rehabilitation and replacement in this way. But ls as much spent on the principle that if more men and women were allowed (and encouraged) to find the right job for themselves, they Would have fewer mental handicaps? are
The subject is already complicated by economic stresses, by Past habits of loyalty?-and antagonisms?and by seasonal fluctuations in society's need, and the task is difficult enough. But the social scientists can respond to the challenge-?and for this, Professor ^argreaves' paper will be a provoking introduction. Dr. Jaques' 0riginal ideas on the measurement of responsibility, reprinted as ?ur second article, may stimulate them to deeper reflection : and they may discover more work and more allies than they expect in the ranks of industry. Here Dr. Laing's account, also published, is most instructive in itself as well as in its description of the method to be employed, a patient, careful pedestrian progress, testing each
step
before there is any
weight
on
it.
This view will be reinforced by the remarks of Dr. J. J. (and again the Conference proceedings should be read full) that "before we consider the mentally ill who enter industry, 11 is only fair to consider the problem of those already employed", ^is account showed clearly the thought that is being given by industrial leaders on this subject. He ended : "we are just realising that the time has come for taking the same trouble over the planning of the people" (as over the planning of materials, building, transport and machinery.) Is industry being helped by psychiatry to do so?
O'Dwyer
thinking
Internationally
An excellent number of "World Health"?the World Health Organisation's Journal?has just been published (May-June, 1959.
Vol. XII,
No. 3) and is devoted to mental health. There are acc?unts of progress throughout Europe and Africa, and the illustrates range from a neo-Boschian "labyrinth of a sick mind" (which make any doctor planning a case-conference think twice), to mental hospital in the Philippines (which would be so much more effective if faces had not had to be "masked"). It is
a
publication
all readers should
see
for themselves. 43
